The basic objective of the proposed research is to investigate some of the processes which underlie acquisition of verbal materials. The approach to be taken in the proposed research is to utilize traditional verbal-learning tasks and methods to study these processes. The specific processes to be studied are: (1) coding of response terms in free recall, (2) clustering of responses in free recall, and (3) selection and coding of stimulus elements in paired-associate learning. The major emphasis of the proposed research will be to evaluate the effects of semantic and acoustic attributes of verbal materials in the three aforementioned processes. An additional goal will be to assess possible changes in the saliency of semantic and acoustic attributes as a function of the developmental level of S and the type of verbal material S is required to learn.